Address Speech: Leading Change.

Change is the very essence of the business leader’s job. It is a very complex process of Learning and Restructuring. Transforming the Emotional, the Intellectual and the Behavioral state of the Group. Uncertainty is the very engine of transformation in a business, a continuous source of new opportunities. Transformation of MTC from one operation in a small country to Zain Group with 23 operations in the MEA countries, making it the 4th largest in the world and re-branding it with new values at the same time. Zain Group has witnessed tremendous financial growth over the years 2002-2009. Presentation to include Strategic Initiative and John P. Kotter’s change model besides quotes from the works of famous business authors, such as, Jack Welch, Stephen Covey, and so on.

Dr. Al Barrak holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering, an MSc in Systems Engineering, both from Ohio University, and a PhD in Information Systems & Technology Management from the University of London. He is also an alumnus of Harvard University. Since his appointment in 2002, Zain’s customer base has increased from 600,000 in Kuwait to over 63.54 million active customers across the Middle East and Africa. Prior to his appointment with MTC, he was Managing Director of International Turnkey Systems. Dr. Al Barrak was Vice-Chairman of the Social Development Office of the Amiri Diwan in Kuwait; Chairman of Egyptian software developer ITSoft; Chairman of Arab Telecom; and a non-executive Director of Arab Management Association in Cairo. In 2005 he received the Middle East’s ‘CEO of the Year’ award, and in 2003 he received the ‘e-Businessman of the Year’ award. He also received the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from leading industry magazine COMMSMEA. September 2012, he was given the “Outstanding Contribution to Business Award". He was an Executive Board Member of Celtel International and an ex-Member of the Board of the GSM Association. He is currently an Advisory Board Member of the UNDP in Kuwait as well as a member of the International University of Africa, Khartoum. Dr. Al Barrak resigned as the CEO of Zain Group in 2010 and later gave up also the position of CEO, Zain KSA. He is at present the Executive Chairman of ILA Group, Bahrain, Egypt and Kuwait. Early 2014, he was chosen as a member of the Supreme Civil Aviation Council, by Kuwait government.

Keynote 1: The Interaction of Renewables and Demand Response in a Smart Grid.

Historically the electric power system has been designed and operated to provide a reliable supply of electricity at a lowest possible cost. This paradigm is now shifting due to the rising cost of fossil fuel and nuclear power stations, and the concern about global warming and climate change. As a result environmental sustainability and energy security are now becoming important considerations. While fossil fuels have been the primary sources of electricity for the last one hundred years, their cost, uneven global distribution and climate change impacts are encouraging planners to look for alternatives in renewable solar resources, which are distributed. But such generation sources have their own challenges -­‐ primarily intermittency. Many believe that the smart grid – due to its inherent communication, sensing and control capabilities – will have the ability to manage the load, storage and generation assets in the power grid to enable a large scale integration of distributed generation. Demand response will also play a role to smooth out some of the power fluctuations arising from intermittent sources. A smart grid will look more like the Internet, where information about the state of the grid and its components can be exchanged quickly over long distances and complex networks. It will therefore be possible to have the integration of sustainable energy sources, such as wind, solar, off-­‐shore electricity, etc. for smoother system operation. But in order for this to be possible, the electric utility will have to evolve and change their ways of operation and become an intelligent provider of these services. This lecture introduces the operational characteristics of renewable energy sources, and various aspects of the smart grid -­‐ technology, standards, regulations and data security. It also addresses the interplay among distributed generation, storage, conventional generation and demand response to provide an efficient operational strategy in the context of the smart grid.

Professor Saifur Rahman is the founding director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech where he is the Joseph R. Loring professor of electrical and computer engineering. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and an IEEE Millennium Medal winner. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the IEEE Electrification Magazine. He was also the founding editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. He has served as the chair of the US National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering from 2010 to 2013. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE PES, and has lectured on smart grid, energy efficient lighting solutions, renewable energy, demand response, distributed generation and critical infrastructure protection topics.

Keynote 2: Sustainable High Quality e-Learning Model.

e-learning in the modern world has become interactive, mobile, project based and available 24/7. Classes can be; full e-learning, blended e-learning and purely classroom classes. All of these are necessary to modern Universities. This talk will present a model of e-learning administration plan adopted by the University of Bahrain that caused a significant rise in the utilization rate of this new medium. The elements of success and the challenges faced will be discussed. The overall model, is sustainable, high quality and extremely ambitious.

Dr. Eshaa Mohamed Alkhalifa Primary Area: Cognitive Science (AI) Advisor to the president of University of Bahrain for e-learning and Information Technology. She is currently directly responsible for all activities of the Zain eLearning Center. She has a Bachelors in Computer Science, University of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain, 1988, a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence, George Washington University, USA, 1990, Phd in Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 2004. Her main achievements include; supervising several major projects, editing three books, chairing a biannual IEEE conference and advising on a local and international level.

Special Talk: Smart Grid Technologies, a Review and Some Perspectives on the Impact of Power Electronics and Smart Metering on Smart Grids

For a hundred years, there has been no change in the basic structure of the electrical power grid. Experiences have shown that the hierarchical, centrally-controlled grid of the twentieth century is ill-suited to the needs of the twenty-first. To address the challenges of the existing power grid, the new concept of smart grid has emerged.

The smart grid can be considered as a modern electric power grid infrastructure for enhanced efficiency and reliability through automated control, high power converters, and a modern communications infrastructure, sensing and metering technologies, modern energy management techniques based on the optimization of demand, energy and network availability, and so on. While current power systems are based on a solid, centric-based, information and communication infrastructure, the new smart grid needs a different and much more complex one, as its dimension is much larger.

Therefore, information and communications technologies (ICT) represents a fundamental element in the growth and performance of smart grids. Power electronics is another key enabling technology because it is fundamental for utilization of renewable energies and for ensuring easily connectivity among the numerous power sources and stable operation in presence of weak grids. Advanced Metering Infrastructure is another fundamental element of SG because it allow full control of power flows, management of loads, billing and full implementation of energy saving and protection through demand side management.

This speech will addresses issues on smart grids primarily in terms of information and communication technology (ICT), power electronics AMI issues and opportunities. Its objective is to provide a contemporary look at the current state of the art in smart grid general concepts, with emphasis on the role of power electronics, smart metering and on the necessary communication infrastructure necessary for full integration among the huge amount of intelligent systems connected with a smart grid. Emphasis will be also given to the important problem of co-existence of the huge number of renewable energy generators and the need for their synchronization.

The speech will also deal with issues related to smart houses focusing the attention on the opportunities given by an advanced meter infrastructure (AMI), which is a key element in the smart grid. Research challenges are described with the deployment of the AMI project in North America, Asia and Europe.

The speech will be concluded discussing the still-open research issues in this field, and hence, to make the decision-making process more effective and direct.

It is expected that the speech will provide a better understanding of the key enabling technologies, potential advantages and research challenges of the smart grid and provoke interest among the research community to further explore this promising research area.

Professor Carlo Cecati is a Full Professor of Converters, Electrical Machines and Drives at University of L'Aquila, Italy. He is a Fellow of IEEE and the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, after serving as Co-Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor since 2004. He also served as an Editor of IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics (2006-2008) and a Guest Editor of several special sections of IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics and IEEE Trans. on Industrial Informatics. His research interests fall into the area of renewable energies and energy saving, in particular, the application of power electronics to renewable energy, distributed generation, smart grids and electrical drives, with emphasis on control, modulation techniques, fault diagnosis, microprocessor applications and industrial networks. In these fields, he published more than 130 papers in the most prestigious international journals and conference proceedings. He was a recipient of the Best Paper Awards of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics and IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine.

He has been an Invited Speaker and a Tutorial Speaker at several universities and conferences in USA, Canada, U.K., Korea, Denmark, Qatar, China, Poland, Angola, Italy. He has been an evaluator of research projects for several national and international institutions including the European Community and Qatar National Research Foundation and an evaluator for numerous international universities in promotions to assistant/associate/full professors and in electrical degree course accreditation.